Which file stores for KDE which apps to open on login

suse_rasputin · March 4, 2022, 8:23am

Hi!

I have different TW-KDE installs. On one, there opens a dolphin in a specifc layout each and every login (I opened it more than a year ago in this specific layout, iirc, but never ever again since then), although I close it directly and it’s not open on shoutdown/reboot. On other TW-KDE installs I would like to open some dolphin and/or other apps automagically on login.

Which file(s) store the info on the apps to open on KDE login and how to manipulate them safely?

Many thanks in advance for any helpfull input…

hcvv · March 4, 2022, 9:25am

Personally I would avoid changing in the underlying files, but would configure this with System Setting > Work Space > Autostart.

susejunky · March 4, 2022, 1:46pm

As Henk van Velden already proposed it might be best to use systemsettings5 -> Startup and Shutdown -> Autostart …

however deleting any (.desktop) file in *~/.config/autostart/ *might work as well.

Regards

susejunky

suse_rasputin · March 7, 2022, 9:17am

And how to add, let’s say, a dolphin with a specific folder layout to open in this autostart folder?

Fun fact: on the machine autostarting a dolphin for more than a year I guess, the only file in

~/.config/autostart/

is

org.opensuse.opensuse_welcome.desktop

with the following content:

# I'll get copied to ~/.config/autostart/ to disable the other desktop file that should be copied to /etc/xdg/autostart/
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Welcome
Exec=/usr/bin/opensuse-welcome
Hidden=true
Icon=org.opensuse.opensuse_welcome
Comment=The openSUSE Welcome utility.
Categories=Qt;System;Documentation
GenericName=Welcome Utility
# Spanish translation
Name[es]=Bienvenida
Comment[es]=La utilidad de bienvenida de openSUSE.
GenericName[es]=Utilidad de bienvenida
# French translation
Name[fr]=Bienvenue
Comment[fr]=Utilitaire de bienvenue
GenericName[fr]=L'utilitaire de bienvenue d'openSUSE.
# Polish translation
Name[pl]=Witaj
Comment[pl]=Program do powitania
GenericName[pl]=Program do powitania w openSUSE.
# Simplified Chinese translation
Name[zh_CN]=??
Comment[zh_CN]=openSUSE ?????
GenericName[zh_CN]=????

And Settings -> System Settings -> Startup and Shutdown -> Autostart is empty. :-o

So what is starting up the dolphin here? Some kind of “Resume what we had at shutdown” that went crazy? Where would such a function store info on apps open at last shutdown/reboot?

hcvv · March 7, 2022, 9:27am

Strange, I have buttons “Add Program …” and “Add Script …” at the bottom.

suse_rasputin · March 7, 2022, 9:53am

Yeah, the buttons are there, but no entry and dolphin starting anyway on reboot.

I don’t want to start a plain vanilla dolphin, but with split view and specific folders opening. Do I need a script for this?

hcvv · March 7, 2022, 10:00am

When you want to start Dolphin in a special state, then that is a Dolphin question then.

As soon as you know how to do that, it is easy enough to let KDE do it as an autostart one. Yes. e.g. a simple script:

#!/usr/bin/bash
/usr/bin/dolphin ...................

And it is the … part you need to find out.

But this question is really not covered by your thread title

hcvv · March 7, 2022, 10:04am

When there is no entry in autostart for Dolphin and it starts on login (NOT on boot!), then that probably is because it was still running at logout and you configured KDE to re-start programs that were running on logout.

suse_rasputin · March 7, 2022, 10:06am

…but I still don’t know what is starting dolphin on reboot here… Is there something like “resume to last state” or something?

hcvv · March 7, 2022, 10:17am

Same System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Desktop Session. There is “On login” where you can have “Restore previous session”. And you probably have that and you do have Dolphin open at logout.

deano_ferrari · March 7, 2022, 10:21am

As Henk has already hinted, do you have KDE configured to restore the previously saved session?

https://www.simplified.guide/kde/session-start-empty

hcvv · March 7, 2022, 10:22am

And I looked in Dolphin configuration (Settings > Configure Dolphin …) (I wonder why you are not able to look in all these user configurations) and found Startup, which shows things like Split view mode enabled or not, start in: possibilties, etc. Please try there (and elsewhere) for yourself.

hcvv · March 7, 2022, 10:55am

And I assume (!) that Dolphin stores it’s present situation in ~/.config/dolphinrc:

henk@boven:~/.config> l dolphinrc
-rw------- 1 henk wij 1822 Mar  7 10:48 dolphinrc
henk@boven:~/.config>

The timestamp there is updated when I start Dolphin again and it is updated also when I stop Dolphin. Thus I assume that altered state is stored then for use at next start…

susejunky · March 7, 2022, 12:46pm

You have to configure the dolphin.desktop file (which you place in ~/.config/autostart) according to your needs.

May be you have systemsettings5 -> Startup and Shutdown -> Desktop Session -> When logging in Restore previous saved session enabled?

Regards

susejunky

suse_rasputin · March 7, 2022, 2:31pm

Yes, but when I close down (for more than a year now) this dolphin is CLOSED, but after reboot it’S there again. That’s why I started the thread… (Can anybody edit the titel (KDE instead of KDS (typo, sorry))

susejunky · March 7, 2022, 2:46pm

Are there any files in ~/.config/autostart-scripts which could cause the issue?

What happens when you log out and move/delete your ~/.cache directory and log in again, will dolphin still start?

Regards

susejunky

suse_rasputin · March 7, 2022, 3:02pm

Nothing in ~/.config/autostart-scripts

The box is headless and in use, so not so easy to check the .cache proposal now.

Sauerland · March 7, 2022, 3:19pm

Post.

ls -al /etc/xdg/autostart/

suse_rasputin · March 7, 2022, 3:24pm

ls -al /etc/xdg/autostart/
total 96
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 Mar  3 18:29 .
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root  4096 Feb 18 17:42 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   304 Feb 20 08:55 at-spi-dbus-bus.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  2108 Feb 24 19:06 baloo_file.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   227 Feb 26 17:20 geoclue-demo-agent.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1526 Feb 22 13:24 gmenudbusmenuproxy.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   305 Feb 20 16:22 hplip-systray.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  3000 Feb 22 13:17 kaccess.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12031 Feb 22 13:24 klipper.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  7318 Feb 20 15:12 org.kde.korgac.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  3121 Feb 24 19:39 org.kde.plasmashell.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   890 Feb  5 21:11 org.opensuse.opensuse_welcome.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  4652 Feb 24 18:48 polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5736 Feb 24 20:13 powerdevil.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  5315 Feb 20 09:41 pulseaudio.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   213 Feb 20 11:21 xdg-user-dirs.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  1515 Feb 22 13:24 xembedsniproxy.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   295 Feb 24 20:07 xprop-kde-full-session.desktop

…here we go

susejunky · March 7, 2022, 3:41pm

There may be even more places where plasma5 caches data or keeps autostart information.

You could check KDE System Administration for more details.

Regards

susejunky